“The Beauty Is That It Could Fail”: A Real-World Story of Risk

Chris Thile, Garrison Keillor and Heather Masse in June, during one of Keillor’s last performances as host of “A Prairie Home Companion.” Credit Mark Peterson/Redux, for The New York Times

The new host of Prairie Home Companion steps in after forty years of someone else running the show.

Toward the end of the meeting at the Fort, in St. Paul, Thile suggested a new idea. He wanted to perform a live request every week with his new house band. The rules: A minimum of two of the players should have heard the song, but none could have previously played it.